Author: Kelsey

GreenPans for a non-toxic home

Kitchen Upgrade: GreenPan

KelseyLeave a comment

I think most families with young children are like us–spending excessive amounts of time in the kitchen. We cook A LOT. We snack A LOT. We do more dishes than a family of 4 should be able to justify. I mean, I really should just install some luxury furnishings in there to settle in and get comfortable. Even my dog spends a lot of time in the kitchen hoping for dropped foods.

Since we do spend so much time cooking–for better or for worse–we really abuse our cookware and that includes our pans, bakeware, and pots. The hardest hit of these three groups are the pans. About a year ago I had all 3 convenient pan sizes, but the middle one disappeared. Turns out, my husband saw a scratch in the surface and determined it unusable due to the toxicity it could possibly pass to our home and our food. He threw it away. Then, we tossed the smallest one just a couple weeks ago for the same reason.

That’s when I got thinking about my next move, which turned out to be a double win + a cleanish move!

In the normal flow of everyday life I WANT to get deals on the things our family needs. I WANT to use my Target app to scan my purchases and score a big discount at the register. But that is, sadly, my fantasy self. I’ve proven over and over again that I just need the thing or the whole cart of things and I need them right now. I am typically very challenged for time away from home without kids, so to me it is often an opportunity cost decision. Just the other day, I was thinking, okay, if I start buying the Easter basket stuff right now, when the shelves are full, then I’ll have less to scramble for come early April. It doesn’t matter that it’s full price, just check it off the list.

All that said, I still get a kick when I DO successfully find a deal.

I was at HomeGoods, aka the discount housewares mothership, and I was really having a good time because the shelves were particularly full (I’m thinking that’s a pandemic retail store closure thing?) and I spotted GreenPan in multiple sizes on both sides of the pots and pans aisle. I had heard of GreenPan, but I hadn’t yet done my research, so I left the store with just my other finds and totally necessary treasures.

When I got home, I had time to research and it appears that GreenPan is indeed a very smart non-stick, non-toxic pan option that is also fairly affordable. I saw them consistently ranked on the “Best” lists and even found them as the preferred cookware by some clean and green folks I follow.

GreenPans are:

  • Ceramic
  • PFOA free
  • PFAS free
  • Lead free
  • Cadmium free
  • Protected up to a high temp (450 degrees)

So, I went back hoping to find all the sizes I need, and I did! I brought 5 pieces home, each of them for about $8 below retail. I felt like a winner already.

GreenPan ceramic, non-toxic pans

When I got home, I moved what was left my sad Calphalon collection out of my drawers and moved the GreenPans in. I even had a final panic moment about the damage I may have already done with my family because PFOAs were largely eliminated from cookware around 2013, but my pans were a wedding gift back in 2010. I guess that just means, GOOD RIDDANCE. I can’t undo the 11 years of cooking with them, but I can move over to a better option for the 10 million more meals we’ll have together.

Last thing about these little suckers: while I read they are also nice to cook with, I wasn’t expecting them to be all that different. It’s only been a few days, but am pleasantly surprised by the experience–they are VERY non-stick, meaning everything just slides around the pan. They cook the food more evenly than my Calphalon, even when the burner is off center. And they are very easy to clean.

OUT with the Calphalon (to clarify: I don’t think Calphalon is the devil, I merely had old Calphalon and believe ceramic is the right non-toxic upgrade for my family), IN with the GreenPan, at a substantial discount(!) and on to a kitchen that is cleaner than it was a week ago.

Can sunscreen do more harm than good?

KelseyLeave a comment

Last summer was a long, hot one here in SoCal. It stretched into early November, no joke. And with a long, hot summer and a family of 4, we emptied dozens of bottles of sunscreen. If you do the math on the $10 bottles of sunscreen, we’re making a big investment and slathering a lot of lotion.

Sometime in the middle of the year, I hastily bought a three pack of the aerosol spray sunscreens that claimed to be kid-friendly. The 3-pack saved me about $5 and I spent $25ish on the three-pack. Mom win, right? No, actually. It turns out it’s not kid friendly, people-friendly or environmentally friendly.

It’s not like I’ve been in the dark about bad ingredients in sunscreen, but I definitely let the economy and easy-of-use play into my decision-making.

There were two moments that got me out of my economy/efficiency mindset.

The first: I was ostracized (I say that lovingly) on a zoom call with my colleagues when they found out what I was using. They poked fun at me, but the message was clear: “Kelsey, throw that shit away!”

The second: my little family was visiting extended family in Oregon, aka home of the woke hippie types. Again, I say this lovingly… I admire the heck out of them. We were rafting down the Rogue River and while the rest of us were reapplying obsessively, they were declining. They’d rather the risk of the sunburn than the risk of the chemicals. At the time, I thought “your body, your decision, but you look like a chili pepper.” And now I’m thinking, “you’re right. The garbage I had was no good.”

Ultimately, I had to ask myself: do I want known carcinogens, endocrine disrupters and allergens going directly on my babies’ skin? My husbands? Mine? My friends that ask to borrow when we’re at the beach? And do I want to do that all summer long, every long summer of my life? That’s a lot of incremental exposure to unnecessary health detractors.

Further, is convenience so important to me that I can’t take an extra few minutes to slather the kids using my hands and kick the environmentally harming aerosol cans?

NO.

I often repeat to myself: what is more important than health? NOTHING. Either pay for it up front with better, sometimes more expensive choices, or potentially pay for it another way when your body demands you take care of a problem you could have prevented.

My personal skin regimen now includes SPF 30 sunscreen from ACURE, as I’ve mentioned before. The active ingredient is zinc oxide, so when I’m smoothing it on in the morning, I have to really rub it into my skin to get the whiteness to go away, then walk away for a few minutes before applying makeup.

And the all-over sunscreen that has replaced the 3 FULL aerosol cans I disposed of, is Thinkbaby’s SPF 50. This tube somehow goes a long way for my family. Even still, I order at least a few at a time so I can have one with our beach gear, one in our front bathroom and one in my purse. I haven’t tried the Thinkbaby stick, but given how impatient my kids are with the sunscreening process, I think this season, I’ll get the stick as well.

I won’t go back either. I’m really happy with this CLEAN upgrade!!

Face Upgrades: ACURE

Kelsey1 Comment

It’s been a long time coming. A really long time.

Growing up, I had extremely temperamental skin, and by that I mean, yes I had acne, but I also had everything else–mysterious patches and rashes and bumps of all kinds. It took many years to find a skin routine that made all of that stop, but there was a big flaw in the plan.

The “plan” was to keep my skin stripped down and dry. And it worked. The winning face wash for a stripped down and dry face was Aveeno’s Positively Radiant Skin Brightening Daily Scrub. Morning and night I’d dry out my skin and use not-very-moisturizing moisturizers like Ponds with SPF.

TEN YEARS LATER I am finally realizing that ingredients on your skin really matter. It’s not just about SPF when you’re in the sun and taking make-up off before bed. It’s about ingredients that are seeping into your body. It’s about replenishing the skin’s surface with natural from-the-earth ingredients. Not only that, but my skin is aging rapidly because it totally lacks moisture and has lacked moisture for TEN YEARS.

But I can’t keep harping on it, I just needed to make some upgrades and not look back.

A colleague introduced me to the brand ACURE. The ingredients are very simple and also check all the non-carcinogenic, non-toxic boxes: no sulfates, no parabens, petrolatum free…

I use (and LOVE) the Seriously Soothing wash, Seriously Soothing day cream, and Radically Rejuvenating night cream. I’ve tried the Radically Rejuvenating wash, though I didn’t like the scent, so I swapped for the Seriously Soothing.

Regarding deodorant, ACURE is my favorite so far, but I’m not 100% on it because on particularly long or physical days, I find I’m suddenly very stinky and need to reapply. Which means if I’m not at home, I’m really self-conscious. Also, it appears to be staining my sweaters. This definitely wasn’t a problem with my junky ingredient deodorant. I’m not going back, but I also haven’t found the “perfect” natural deodorant yet.

What I also love about ACURE — the convenience of buying through my Thrive Market account. I just add whatever I’m running out of to the Thrive Box and on my next checkout, my refills are on the way.

If you’re thinking about cleaning up your skin routine, I can’t recommend this brand enough. I haven’t had any breakouts and I’ve noticed small improvements in my skin evenness and texture and it’s only been about 6 months of using the products.

Any other skin care lines out there with simple, good-for-you ingredients that also won’t break the bank?